Increasing cost of gasoline and increasing awareness to environmental pollution have increased the use of electrically-powered vehicles or hybrid vehicles, that are known to solve some of the problems associated with gasoline-powered vehicles, but such vehicles are not yet in widespread use.
Electrically-powered vehicles have certain drawbacks as compared to vehicles powered by conventional gasoline engines and newer hybrid vehicles. The drawbacks include limited travel range between battery recharging and excessive time and power resources required for recharging the batteries. Furthermore, typically, it takes a relatively long time to recharge the batteries, compared with gasoline fill-up, during which time the vehicle remains inoperative.
There is therefor a need for and it would be advantageous to have an electrically-powered vehicle with a significant increase of the travel range between battery recharging events. One way to increase the travel range of electrically-powered vehicles is to charge the batteries while the vehicle is in motion. Typically, this has been accomplished by using wind resistance to generate electrical power. Many variations on this theme have been described in the art, but all have inherent limitations. Accordingly, there is still a continuing need to develop more efficient ways to charge batteries while the vehicle is in motion. The present invention fulfills this need and further provides related advantages.